Monday March 16th

SOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOoooooo... today was our first day out and about in the REAL Chicago. Our day's activities consisted of working at two homeless shelters. After our first experience riding the LOOP, we headed to Breakthrough Urban Ministries, which had a men's and women's shelter, separated by a few blocks. The women's shelter housed about 30 women, and we divided into a few groups, doing various tasks including sorting clothes, organizing sheets and towels, unloading food, and cleaning up outdoor common area. Part of the group stayed to help out at the men's shelter, working in the kitchen and helping to prepare lunch for about 40-50 men. After the morning of work, we ate lunch at the shelters with the residents, and learned a sweet new game that was a synergy of pool and shuffleboard. After some great lunch conversation, we regrouped and heard about the organization from the other side: asking questions and learning about the group's structure, funding, and goals. Their $5 million annual budget (not from the government) and gorgeous new facilities really impressed us all, along with the group's obvious passion for what they were doing.

After taking bus #12 to another part of town, we arrived at Hope House, another shelter with similar goals and community support systems as Breakthrough. We came in expecting a similar experience with the comparable resources, support, and organization. We had been told that we would be helping to serve dinner to the 100-200 guests that come daily, but instead, we found that because one key member of their kitchen staff was absent, the whole organization was unorganized and at a loss for what to do with us. We did whatever tasks they came up with for us, including cleaning the offices, refrigerator, toilets, hallways, and mattresses, but ended up working for less than 2 hours instead of the 4 that we had been schedule to volunteer. At the end of the day, we had some good words from a couple leaders in the organization, but overall, everyone had some weird vibes from Hope House.

After an excellent meal in Chinatown at Three Happiness, we had a great reflection, and talked a lot about the contrasts we had seen that day, both between the two shelters we had volunteered at, and between today's experience of Chicago versus the swanky Magnificent Mile of clean, upscale shopping that we had experienced the day before.

Moments of the day:
"I love p****" -Edyta

"In my family, we were raised hererosexual, so I don't do all that new-fangled stuff." - lunch table lady

Kevin: My face hurts
S Moon: Because you're ugly

"I dunno why we had to scrub both sides of the bed when one was going to lay on the dirty floor anyway"
-Goov

"It was so gross, my toes were stuck together with meat juice, I was about to f****** lose it"
-Carlyn

"There is no one so rich that they don't need help or so poor that they cannot help"
-Fortune Cookie

"No one notices how much you do until you don't do it"
-Wall sign at Hope House

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